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Starving children found in drug squalor
Police raided a Wigan home and found three starving children living in squalor while their mum and her partner lay in a drug-induced stupor upstairs.
Appalled officers found the youngsters – aged eight, seven and six – in a room where the heroin substitute methadone, a bottle of alcohol and
prescription medicines had been left lying around.
Extreme pornographic material was found, there was dog excrement on the floor and a distressed Staffordshire bull terrier shut in the kitchen.
The children told the bobbies that they had not eaten for at least two days and virtually the only food found in the house in the raid was an burnt roast meal in the oven.
The eldest child also said that their mum and her boyfriend had been in bed for a similar amount of time.
Police had great difficulty in rousing the pair, who were in bed upstairs at the address in Hindley. Officers reported that they appeared to be in some kind of drug-induced state.
The children's clothes were said to be dirty, as if they had not been changed for some time.
Police had been called to the flat after concerns had been raised by neighbours that the place did not seem to be secure and that children had been heard crying.
On arriving they found the outside door unlocked and came across the dismaying scene inside.
A 29-year-old woman from Springfield and a 31-year-old man from Hindley have since been arrested on suspicion of child cruelty and neglect.
They are currently on bail, but a source said they were likely to be charged with three offences each later this month.
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Weather for Wigan
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 10 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 23 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 12 C to 24 C
Wind Speed: 18 mph
Wind direction: East
